The present invention relates generally to a gear shifting device for a manually controlled transmission of a vehicle and particularly to a gear shifting device of this type which is improved to comprise a shifting rod which requires to shift a gear change lever in two directions intersecting each other for moving the shifting rod from one of its two opposite shifting positions into the other shifting position.
As is well known in the art, a manually controlled transmission providing, for example, three forward speeds and one reverse speed is usually controlled by a gear change lever having a shift pattern in which a group of reverse and first speed gear (R and 1) positions and a group of second and third speed gear (2 and 3) positions are arranged respectively in two straight lines and the gear change lever is movable between two positions in each of the lines.
A manually controlled transmission providing an overdrive gear in lieu of the third speed gear has been controlled by a gear change lever having a shift pattern in which a group of the 1 and 2 positions and a group of the R position and overdrive gear (OD) position are arranged respectively in two straight lines and the gear change lever is movable between two positions in each of the lines. Thus, when a vehicle having such a transmission is travelling at a high speed in the overdrive gear, since if the change lever is erroneously shifted from the OD position, it can be easily shifted into the R position in a straight line, there has been a crisis that an accident takes place due to a damage of the transmission, an unstable movement of the vehicle caused by an abrupt deceleration, or the like.